And yes, seven officers is extreme, but it seems that only one officer originally approached her, and then chaos ensued.

And trying to blame me for trying to "blame the vicitm" is beneath you because that's a complete stretch and not at all what I said or implied. Shame on you. But what I do take offense to, as you should as well, is that only part of the story is discussed, and facts are omitted because it makes for better shock value on a blog.

But it isn't ridiculous. It is much worse than ridiculous. And yes, according to one of the police reports only one officer approached her.

I, however, don't believe that for a second. Police reports are more and more frequently challenged with video evidence of their dishonesty. And, while there doesn't appear to be video evidence in this case, I don't see a straight path from one reasonable officer approaching Ms. Daly, to Ms. Daly exhibiting behavior that requires the response of seven armed officers.

Tell me, how do you think three young women in a car could escalate a confrontation so that "chaos ensued". Love the use of the passive voice, by the way. Chaos didn't "ensue". The officers brought it with them.

The tactic of a charging someone with "resisting arrest" when the officer has been the provocateur has a long and dishonorable history. That history -- and that behavior -- creates a more believable picture than three students causing chaos to ensue.

It wasn't my "omitting facts" that was dishonest. It was the act of bringing those those charges at all that was dishonest.

Nobody was hurt, thankfully, but about 400 of the 900 cars in that parking garage were completely submerged in the deluge, and the brand-new hardwood basketball court installed at Pauley only two months ago is completely ruined and will have to be replaced. And the Sunset Blvd. force main failure serves as yet another warning about the decaying state of our nation's infrastructure.

The other day we were talking about desirable addresses in LA. I was in the process of doing this and was busted for OT and it was deleted.
Since I don't live there anymore and don't know who does I am going to give you the address of the last place I lived in LA because it's cool to enter in into google and then zoom out and see how "on the edge" of LA I was.
The house was 800 sqft. Not a typeo. It was on a georgous double lot that had been landscaped by the previous owner who happened to manage the LA Arboretum and Botanic Garden. I bought it for 200,000 kept it for exactly two years to avoid capital gains an sold it for 300,000.

My cousin and his wife live on Adams St. right off La Crescenta Ave., probably about a mile or so from your old place. I grew up in the Hastings Ranch area of east Pasadena, about ten or so miles east from where you were. The San Gabriel foothills are a wonderful place to live. And the region has lots and lots of trees, which generally keep it from being unbearably hot.

It was like being in LA but not. I lived in Tujunga for about 12 years. Just bought a house at the end.
House I rented for ten years was a cooler house about 4 blocks from that address. But the property I owned was much cooler.

The alternative is frightening to contemplate. Last year was the driest on record since California became a state in 1850 -- and scientists have noted that data compiled from examinations of tree rings indicate that it's the driest since 1580!

... be acutely aware of their own personal water usage, and make adjustments accordingly. We had to do that in the mid-1970s. The City of Pasadena recently instituted mandatory water restriction and conservation measures.

One area where homeowners can make a difference is their yards. A lot of water gets wasted in the maintenance of green lawns, an obsolete tradition which migrated with people several generations ago as they moved into California from back east. Perhaps it's time to for them to finally consider getting rid of the grass, and xeriscaping their yards instead with rock gardens, mulch, drought-tolerant plants and foliage. I've seen a lot of people do that over there in recent years.

My mother's neighbors next door did that two years ago, and now that it's grown out, she enjoys looking at their yard so much that she wants to do the same.

If the government, in this kid of drought, cannot establish firm guidelines, with adequate fines to dissuade waste, then what good is governance in our age? We should have had mandated conservation a couple of years ago AT LEAST. Mahalo.

The State Water Quality Control Board has authorized mandatory fines for wasteful practices, and it is up to local utilities and municipalities to enforce the code. In 2009, Pasadena enacted a conservation ordinance that limits outdoor watering to between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, requires customers to fix leaks within 72 hours, prohibits car washing except in facilities that recycle water, and imposes various other restrictions.

The Pasadena Dept. of Water & Power and other community utilities in the San Gabriel Valley rely primarily upon neighbor complaints to enforce the code, and such community self-monitoring and self-policing has actually been quite effective in deterring waste. Since April 2013, PDWP has issued 1,100 warnings and has issued 70 citations, and overall water use has declined nearly 20% in response to the drought.

... State Water Resources Control Board. And here's how the restrictions are being implemented, courtesy of the Association of California Water Agencies. You can actually use that site to inquire about the particular restrictions that are in place in your specific locale.

a history buff might enjoy. It's called The Great Martian War 1913-1917. It's a very well done historical mocumentary about that imaginary war. Looks exactly like a history channel show about WWs 1 or 2 but with really well done archival footage of H.G.Wells invasion machines.
And lots of really old actors getting to work as surviving eye witnesses.

Some 40 Land Rover owners across the U.S. woke up Tuesday morning to police and federal investigators knocking on their doors and demanding they hand over their trucks. Officials say it's part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the illegal importation of Land Rovers into this country, Jalopnik has learned.

snip

"ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agents served court-ordered seizure warrants on approximately 40 Land Rovers in various locations around the country," he said in an email. "The seizures are being made pursuant to an ongoing criminal investigation involving the unlawful importation of the vehicles from Great Britain. The Land Rovers, which do not meet federal safety or emission standards, cannot be lawfully operated in the United States."

... some rancher quoted in the article, who blames Obama for the amnesty offered to undocumented children brought to the U.S. by their parents before 2007. Needless to say, the rancher also opposes the DREAM Act.

There's really nothing to be gained by engaging the callously nonsensical, and I'm too tired nowadays to even try anymore. The racism and xenophobia on open display here from these people is disheartening, to say the least.

Newest conspiracy theory by the tea partiers here in Ga. Michelle Nunn is part of the one world conspiracy. They think her father works for George Soros now. Googled it and found nothing of the sort. If Perdue starts spewing this kind of crap, he's toast. Perdue has said however that he will not vote for Mitch McConnel for majority leader should the GOP take the senate. I guess McConnel is now part of the one world conspiracy and controls the flow of the black helicopters from the UN?

Is +3.2 for Perdue. That's not much. Nunn leads in one poll him in three.

Democrats are excited about Michelle Nunn's chances of ending the party's 14-year dry spell in the Senate, and changing demographics may indeed help the party of Jackson regain its footing here. But this is still a Republican state, and even with massive black turnout in 2008, Democrats couldn't put the Senate seat away. This race starts out close, with Nunn and Perdue trading leads in the polls, but given the environment and the Republican lean of the state, Perdue probably starts with an edge.

fortunately for Nunn nobody seems to be too excited about Perdue and Deal isn't in great shape either. I wonder how big a drag Deal is going to be for Perdue if any and then I think the GOP just shot themselves in the foot with their latest stunt of suing the president. They're now saying that Obamacare isn't bad it just wasn't implemented right? How are they going to argue against it when they're suing him to implement it. This is par for the course though. They really just don't make any sense.

I would think that mentioning that a religious tradition which is also a medical procedure, even though performed by "not a licensed physician", seems to be spreading a disease wouldn't, by itself, be off-limits for an open thread.

After all, there are recognized limits to speech freedoms and even recognized limits to religious freedoms where those limits exist to protect other rights, so I don't think a discussion of where to draw the line between religious tradition and protecting public health would, by itself, be out of bounds.

...guess it got zapped before I could, but I saw a story in the news that I'm pretty sure is what you were talking about, and I wondered whether your comment got removed solely due to the subject matter or if it was because you expressed an opinion she considered disrespectful or something like that.

I would think that the subject itself--religious practice clashes with post "invention of the microscope" medical advice--would be suitable for an open thread.

WASHINGTON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee report will conclude that the CIA's use of harsh interrogation after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks yielded no critical intelligence on terrorist plots that could not have been obtained through non-coercive methods, U.S. officials familiar with the document said.

Foreshadowing the impending release of a report expected to suggest that the "enhanced" techniques were unnecessary and also to accuse some CIA officers of misleading Congress about the effectiveness of the program, President Barack Obama said on Friday that the CIA "tortured some folks." He had banned the practices soon after taking office in 2009.

Officials said the Senate Intelligence Committee was unlikely to release the report to the public without some additional review.

"A preliminary review of the report indicates there have been significant redactions. We need additional time to understand the basis for these redactions and determine their justification. Therefore the report will be held until further notice and released when that process is completed," Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committee's chair, said.

The voluminous report does not state that the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" - which included measures such as "waterboarding," or simulated drowning, on captured al Qaeda militants - produced no information of value whatsoever, the officials said.

But it asserts that such tactics yielded no information that would have been "otherwise unavailable" to spy agencies through normal interrogations aimed at foiling further plots in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, the officials said.